Bike touring on Maui was amazing for me. Not only was I pushing my body to limits I could only imagine, viewing sights that were more beautiful than photos could capture, I was learning so much practical knowledge, too.
Tent flapping? Line was not taunt enough. Hill too steep? Zigzag. No running water? Carry as much as you and your bike can hold and shower whenever it is available. New personal camping cookstove? Be sure to purchase the correct kind of propane. Place items to be used at the top of the saddlebags. When photographing, pay attention to what's in the background. Close-ups are nice. Once in a while, even an amateur can capture the swan dive on film.
What about the impractical things I have learned? I learned to stop. Notice. Observe. Enjoy. Laugh. Take time to go to the roadside stands as there will be some good grub there to eat or drink. Old timers who have a morning routine of drinking coffee together will talk and share their stories. Listen. The waves breaking at night are a lovely lullaby. Everyone has something scares them, even leaders. The strong are sometimes weak and the weak are sometimes strong. Men actually do talk when together (and yes, sex is one topic that crops up frequently). And if I'm quiet, I can gleam some insight into their pysche.
Our third day began with leaving our hosts and the croaking frogs behind and heading toward the road to Hana. Our destination: the YMCA camp of Kaenae. We had obtained permits the day before at the state building in Wailuku.
We soon were pedaling into a fierce heavy headwind and felt as if we were making no progress. It was relatively flat as we seemed to continue on and on and on. Slowly we started to wind our way up. As we did so, the roadside stands began to appear alongside us.
I had been to Maui twice before. Once on my honeymoon exactly 25 years ago and again a couple of years ago. The road to Hana has symbolized a great deal to me as time has passed.
I have always chosen to live my life with no regrets but Hana had been the closest thing to a road of regret for me. I regretted not speaking up. If there were but one single moment to relive in my life, the trip on that road so many years ago was it for me.
The chance to go to Maui and ride on this bike tour was a do-over for me, of sorts. With each day that passed, I could feel the approach to Hana in my inner self. If that sounds new-Agey or weird, so be it.
Always before, I had never stopped at any of the roadside stands. Big mistake. As I said, the cuisine is good. Very. I was hungry from pumping my legs at a steady clip, carrying the load on my bike and perhaps my senses were heightened, but even so, the native people of Maui prepare some delicious foods and grow fruit that is amazing.
We stopped more often than not. We found small pools of water to jump into and cool ourselves between roadside snack stops. I was sure I would gain weight on this trip, even with the physical demands of biking and stopping to swim.
Before long, we arrived at the YMCA camp. Hot showers, running water, beautiful views and we had the entire camp to ourselves. I had an amazing spot overlooking the cliff out to the ocean.
We set up our camp and cookstoves and ate quickly as the weather seemed to be changing and a heavy storm was approaching. I was so tired I looked forward to the showers. That is, until sheets of rain stormed upon our small abodes causing the wind to whip my tent flaps. All. Night. Long. When I recount this evening and say I did not sleep, I am not exaggerating. And why didn't I go out and fix them? Because I could not figure out what was making them flap and it was raining so doggedly that I didn't dare leave my tent.
The next morning the guys laughed at my recounting of the evening's flapping and showed me how to fix the problem. For the remainder of my trip, despite showers of rain and wind whipping along the shoreline, my tent remained taunt.
We quickly packed before the next storm came upon us ... at this point of the trip our three hardest days of climbing had passed. I had proven I could be the Killer Bee they teasingly nicknamed me. I will admit, I now put a good majority of my food items in a carload of gear that had joined us, being driven by Vanessa and her friend. It's not that I couldn't carry it but I decided since we were stopping so frequently to purchase food, why did I need to carry so much that I wasn't eating or cooking?
We proceeded to our next destination Waianapanapa, another campground. On the way we were caught in a torrential downpour but together it somehow seemed fun, even on a bike with saddlebags. We harvested wild avocado for our dinners, purchasing mango and other fruits and vegetables at locals' homes or markets.
We set up our campsite and were free once more to explore our surroundings. We would spend two nights here so there was plenty of time to enjoy all of the splendor surrounding us. First choice? Swim in the ocean framed by the shores of the Black Sand Beach.
There were a lot of people at Waianapanapa Black Sand Beach that day but no one was in the water. It was shortly after the tsunami in Japan and the waves were very choppy. Four of us decided to swim beyond the breakers. Without going into who was swimming with me, let's just say he was male and bigger than I am (I know, nearly everyone in our group was male and bigger than me).
We were bobbing along in very robust waves. In fact, I would venture to guess this was the most choppy bit of ocean I had ever swam in on my 47 years on our planet called Earth. Still, I was not scared. It did not feel out of control and I am a strong swimmer. The current was not bad and overall I was enjoying myself. I had just decided in my head I would go no farther when the man swimming next to me looked rather panic stricken. He looked like a deer caught in headlights as he said, "I don't think I can make it back to shore, Kathy. Don't leave me."
I have often noticed I am calm in emergency situations. When our children were injured growing up, I was calm. As I taught in classrooms, the crazier the situation, the calmer I become inside. This moment was no different.
"Okay. I am not leaving you. You are going to swim on your side, looking at me the entire time." I did not hold onto him or instruct him to come near me as I recalled how sometimes swimmers panic-stricken and pull their rescuers underwater. I have three children who are still very much in need of their mom so I kept him at a distance, but ready to grab him and pull him to shore if needed.
He turned to look at me, laying on his left side as I lay on my right, facing him. The waves were coming toward us, pushing us toward the shore, bobbing us up and down.
"We are going to let the waves carry us back to shore. You are looking good. That's right, let the wave carry you."
The moment felt strangely tranquil for me. I can't explain why. I just knew he was going to be okay and that normalcy would return.
It did.
Soon we were back on the sand and joined the other strangers standing on the black shoreline looking out to sea. My new friend and one of our traveling companions looked at me and said, "You saved my life. I'm not kidding Kathy. I could not have made it back to shore without you."
Later that day we rode our bikes to the shores and sea of the Red Sand Beach. We laughed and roasted one another by the campfire that evening. There were light showers that night.
We awoke to another beautiful Maui day and rode bikes around in pairs or individually throughout the day. Some of us went to markets, others to beaches, body-surfing and more. One member's bike broke and miraculously he happened upon the part at a garage sale later that day. Without it, he would have had to lose two days of our bike adventure, traveling back and forth to get the part from the bike shop near the airport.
Some of us went to toast Vanessa and Kevin's mom at the Hotel Hana Maui resort. I can recommend the lemon mojito. I can also say that liquor affects me when I have been swimming and bike riding all day. I slept soundly.
The next morning I awoke and packed up, ready to go to our next destination. Before doing so, someone mentioned the sea caves that they'd been to in previous years.
Sea Caves? This was something I needed to see. Five of us walked down a path to the caves, four of us jumping in the fresh water to explore. The only glitch of this two day excursion was that I did not wear my night light on this portion of the hike. I could have swam with my head above water but had better lighting for climbing over and into the caves. I could see underwater, it was crystal clear, but it was dark inside the caves.
This is when I realized one member of our group, who up until this point had been fearless, was scared. In fact, he'd been the leader for a good portion of our trip. As we stood in what can only be described as a large adult-sized coffee can shaped cave he had had enough. He quickly scaled the wall back over to the sunlite side of the freshwater pool.
I had more trouble getting over, being so much shorter. I had to step on the thighs and shoulders of one of the men to crawl back to our starting point.
The two remaining explorers did as much exploring as they could do in the dark and turned back to join us. That is until one got kinda got stuck. He was like Pooh Bear. He noticed that fact too and said, "Christopher Robin, help me! I'm stuck."
We had some side-splitting belly laughs over that comment. And with that, we dried ourselves with towels that were packed in the Cannon's car. We attached our gear back onto our bikes: tents, sleeping bags, food, clothing and more to begin the longest day of our journey.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete